Encrypted electronic gaming ticket

ABSTRACT

An electronic ticket ( 30 ) is disclosed which includes a date of purchase ( 31 ), a ticket identifier ( 32 ), wager attributes ( 33 ), a draw identifier ( 35 ), a draw date ( 36 ), draw numbers ( 37 ), an authority authorized retail identifier ( 38 ), and an authority authorized retail terminal identifier ( 39 ). The electronic ticket ( 30 ) may be a displayed version of an image file, or other electronic file type, which is stored and displayed upon a mobile computer device ( 50 ). The image file creates a matrix of pixels which together form a picture including text which form the electronic ticket. The image pixels are manipulated by steganographic techniques, to encode various attributes, including the manipulation of the least significant digits of the numeric value of the pixel color.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is filed as a divisional of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 14/612,916 filed on Feb. 3, 2015 and is entitled “EncryptedElectronic Gaming Ticket”, which claims the benefit of U.S. ProvisionalPatent Application Ser. No. 62/003,013 filed May 26, 2014 and entitled“System and Method For Electronic Lottery Ticket Distribution andValidation”.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates generally to gaming tickets, and specifically toelectronic gaming tickets.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Gaming tickets have existed for decades. A gaming ticket may include anytype of wager placed upon a sporting event, game of chance, or otherwage type play. One of the most common types of such gaming ticket is alottery ticket. Conventional lottery tickets rely on the printing ofwager information on a piece of paper. The wager information may includethe game, draw and wager attributes along with a unique ticketidentifier which allows for the validation of the ticket by the issuingauthority. Wager attributes may include numbers or letters or symbolsfrom pools of the same. Paper tickets are usually printed only after anelectronic audit transaction has recorded the wager information. Thesepaper tickets are typically anonymous bearer documents with noindication of ownership other than its physical possession as an outcomeof their purchase or legal transfer. To claim a prize associated withthe wager information one simply presents the ticket to the issuingauthority or its proxy for validation of its document authenticity,recorded audit trail and match of its wager attributes to issuingauthority declared award validation attributes.

The paper ticket is a bearer document which the issuing authority willvalidate, upon presentation by a claimant, as a condition of and priorto awarding a prize. Validation entails several steps. First, thetickets medium (paper) is checked to determine if it matches that of theissuing authority. Second, the wager information printed on the claimantticket matches the game award rules required to award a prize. Third, aunique ticket identifier printed on the ticket is matched to the uniqueticket identifier recorded in the audit records of the issuingauthority. Extensive effort is made to verify that only the uniqueticket identities issued by the authority are claimed. This oftenincludes duplicate and independent audit controls to record wagerinformation by the issuing authority.

A paper ticket matching the game award rules required to award a prizecan be physically counterfeited in many ways including, but not limitedto, using valid authority paper stock and valid authority printingequipment. This physical counterfeiting method is mitigated by theauthority securely maintaining the recorded wager information in theauthority system which will tell them if a uniquely identified ticketwas in fact authorized for printing. Thus, the paper ticket is not thesole means of authenticity. Authenticity is the physical possession of avalid bearer document medium printed with valid wager informationmatching recorded wager information in an authority system.

Counterfeiting a ticket would thus require not only printing on a validbearer document medium, but also manipulating the internal issuingauthorities' computer system(s) and one or more independent controlsystem(s) to record an electronic audit transaction with a unique ticketidentifier that matches the printed (counterfeit) ticket.

However, counterfeiting by creating a duplicate ticket (a second ticketwhich has the exact same attributes of the first or original ticket) maybe accomplished with less effort. If the printed wager information on aticket is known, such as by the winner posting a photograph of theticket on a public forum, the use of valid authority bearer documentmedium and valid authority printing equipment may allow a physicalduplicate to be created that was indistinguishable from the original asfar as claim validation is concerned. In this case, the first claimantto present the ticket may be validated as authentic.

Notwithstanding the possibility of counterfeiting, the bearer nature ofthe ticket is highly desirable by prize claimants as it allows, amongmany reasons, the claimants to remain anonymous in their wageringhistory prior to claim of a winning ticket, determine the appropriate ordesired apportionment of the prize amounts to individual or corporatestructures and determine the appropriate or desired geographic residencefrom which to claim the ticket for reasons such as tax advantage.

The critical attributes of a paper ticket are that the ticket is abearer document such that prior to claim, the actual bearer whom iscurrently in possession is not identifiable through information printedon or electronically associated with the ticket nor is the bearerswagering history discernable through the bearers' possession of any oneticket. Thus, the bearer is awarded a prize so long as a valid ticket isvalidly issued by the authority with valid wager information matchingthe game award rules required to award a prize.

The recent advent of ubiquitous internet connectivity and specificallyinternet connected mobile devices and the mobile applications (apps)running on them has allowed many traditional paper based products tomigrate to an electronic version of the basic product such as couponsand loyalty cards. Tickets, including those for lottery and other typesof wagering, however, have not achieved this more convenient electronicproduct format due to the impractical nature of satisfying the criticalattributes of the product.

Current electronic lottery ticket systems, including internet basedsystems, require non-anonymous transactions where the player is requiredto identify themselves and pay or pre-pay for the tickets under thatidentity. Players are hesitant to identify themselves prior to claim,provide sensitive financial information or have their wagering historystored by states or private parties and prefer to retain the criticalattributes of a paper ticket.

It would be desirable to provide tickets for lottery and other types ofwagering in an electronic format, acting as an electronic bearerinstrument, that would retain the critical attributes of a paper ticketwhile eliminating the need for paper as a ticket medium.

It would further be desirable to allow an electronic ticket to bepurchased and born by a player in a substantially similar manner as thepaper ticket, yet have a behavior similar to that of a paper ticket sothat people feel comfortable with their use.

It would further be desirable to have the electronic ticket provide forplayer anonymity as a bearer instrument.

It would further be desirable to have the electronic ticket provide forstorage of player credentials such that player claim rights areprotected by player reproducible information contained only within theelectronic ticket and discoverable by the issuing authority at the timeof claim.

It would further be desirable to have the electronic ticket provide fora group wagering means such that multiple players could add credentialsto a common electronic ticket and be protected in their shared claimrights by both shared possession of the electronic ticket as well as ameans to individually and/or collectively prove claim validity.

It would further be desirable to have the electronic ticket provide fora group wagering means such that multiple players could indicateapportionment of prize award at the time of purchase to avoiddisagreement at the time of claim.

It thus is seen that a need has long existed for an electronic gamingticket which is an anonymous, secure bearer instrument verifiable by theissuing authority. Accordingly, it is to the provision of such that thisinvention is primarily directed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An electronic bearer instrument comprises an electronic file containinga humanly detectable first data set and a humanly undetectable seconddataset. The humanly undetectable second dataset containing wagerinformation selected by or for a claimant and encrypted using acryptographic key. The second dataset also being encoded into thehumanly detectable first dataset.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a conventional paper lottery ticket of theprior art.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of an electronic lottery ticket of thepresent invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of the electronic lottery ticket of FIG. 2shown on a smart phone.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of an encryption cycle used for theelectronic lottery ticket of FIG. 2.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating the method of encrypting anddecrypting the lottery ticket of FIG. 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

With reference next to the drawings, there is shown a system and methodof producing and verifying an electronic bearer instrument, in the formof electronic tickets, in a preferred form of the invention. FIG. 1shows a conventional paper gaming ticket 10 in the form of a lotteryticket. The lottery ticket 10 is imprinted with the date of purchase 11,a unique ticket identifier 12, an award validation attributes 13 whichusually describe the game identifier, the draw identifier 15, a drawdate 16, and the numbers 17 or other attributes of the wager. The drawdate 16 identifies the date upon which the winning numbers are selectedand subsequently validated or claimed. The ticket may also include anauthority authorized retail identifier 18 and an authority authorizedretail terminal identifier 19 which provides additional validationattributes which identify the location and exact terminal used at thatlocation for the purchase of the ticket.

The award validation attributes 13 contain information such as thenumbers 17 within a range in one or more sets that match the game rulesfor a specific game. An example of game rules might be that the topprize is awarded to a claimant when the wager attributes on a ticketmatches entirely, the award validation attributes picked at random as aresult of a draw. If the tickets wager attributes are numbers and are12, 23, 34, 45, 56, 67 and 12 and the draw winning award validationattributes are numbers and are 12, 23, 34, 45, 56, 67 and 12 then aprize for the draw is awarded to the claimant possessing the matchingwager attributes.

FIG. 2 shows an electronic ticket 30, in a preferred form of theinvention that may be any type of ticket even though the ticketdescribed in detail herein is in the form of a gaming ticket andspecifically to a gaming ticket in the form of a lottery ticket. As usedherein, the term ticket is meant to represent any type of bearerinstrument such as, but not limited to, a lottery ticket, a gamblingticket, a bond, a stock certificate, or coupon. Similar to theconventional paper ticket shown in FIG. 1, the electronic ticket 30includes a date of purchase 31, a ticket identifier 32, award validationattributes 33, a draw identifier 35, a draw date 36, draw numbers 37, anauthority authorized retail identifier 38, and an authority authorizedretail terminal identifier 39.

As described in more detail hereinafter, the electronic ticket 30 is adisplayed version of an image file which is stored and displayed upon amobile computer device 50 and in one embodiment, designed to resemble aconventional paper lottery ticket. The mobile computer device 50 may bea smart phone, tablet, laptop computer, PDA, or any other similardevice. The image file creates a matrix of pixels which together form animage or picture and text which form the electronic ticket. FIG. 2Ashows a portion of the matrix of pixels which create the first digit ofa ticket identifier 32, wherein each pixel 42 creating the first digit(shown as 1) is shown as a single square. The image pixels aremanipulated by steganography techniques to encode the image throughmanipulation of the least significant digits of the numeric value of thepixel color as explained in more detail hereinafter.

The method and system of this invention centers on the innovativeconcept of generating an electronic ticket in the form of an electronicfile (first dataset), such as, but not limited to, an image file in aformat such as the portable network graphic (mime type of image/png)encoded with a payload (second dataset) using steganography techniques.The payload includes a content cypher text string, which has beenencrypted using a symmetric key and a symmetric key cypher text stringwhich was used to symmetrically encrypt the content plain text stringand has been encrypted using an authority or game or draw specificasymmetric public key. The content cypher text string contains thesymmetrically encrypted content plain text string which contains thewager attributes 33, a unique ticket identifier 32 and optionally,individual or group claimant authentication information such as, but notlimited to, a pin or password cryptographic hash or one or morecryptographic hashes of files in possession of the player, such that theresulting electronic file possesses the critical attributes of a ticket,can be stored on any electronic storage medium and can be transmittedusing any lossless digital transmission method.

The method and system may provide a central system to persist andretrieve various information required for game management play such asauthority information, game information, draw information, retailerinformation and other similar information. The system may also be usedfor wager management with information such as ticket serial numbers andspecific game, draw, panel, component options selected by the player.The central system could be hosted on premise upon servers or cloudbased hosted on virtual instances of computing resources such as toservices, databases, queues, file storage, internet web servers andother associated resources.

The following description references a lottery game as one embodiment ofthe invention. The system is typically utilized by a player with amobile phone, tablet, or device executing an application or claimantsoftware stored upon the claimants device. These devices includes anios, android, windows phone or other operating systems which allows thedevice to select one or more lottery games that have been stored in thegame management system. The player selects one or more draws and one ormore panels per draw and selects component options from pools eithermanually or through system selection by pseudorandom algorithm, i.e.,the player selects their own numbers or an automatic selection ofnumbers through a quick pick type algorithm. As an option, the player orgroup of players can provide credentials to be stored in the encryptedpayload to allow various levels of authentication of the player uponclaim.

The credentials stored in the encrypted payload that is encoded into theticket file and during the claiming process may include acryptographically hashed pin (personal identification number) rememberedby the player and presentable to cryptographically hash as validation ofthe pin; a cryptographically hashed password remembered by the playerand presentable to cryptographically hash as validation of the password;a cryptographic hash of a file possessed by the player and presentableto cryptographically hash as validation of the image; a voice printprovided by the player and reproducible as validation of the voice; afinger print provided by the player and reproducible as validation ofthe finger print; or other reproducible credential items which do notidentify the player in the form that is stored in the payload.

The game, draw and panel selections are stored, prior to checkout, in ashopping cart list. The player can choose to save the selections, in afavorites list, to be used in future transactions. When ready to wager,the player selects checkout to start the payment process. When a playerapp enters checkout mode, the player app displays a waiting stateindicator to indicate that a payment process is occurring with anindeterminate processing period.

Alternatively, the method and system could provide the player a web pageor text messaging dialog that allows them to select or communicate theselection of one or more games that have been stored in the gamemanagement system. The player then selects or communicates selection oneor more draws and one or more panels per draw and selects orcommunicates selection of component options from pools either manuallyor through system selection by pseudorandom algorithm (quick pick). Inthis embodiment, the player could provide an email address or textaddress to which the final generated electronic file is sent afterpayment is recorded. As the final electronic file may be sent to the appon the device, to an email address, to a text message, or any otherelectronic storage means, the term claimant file storage system may beused herein as any of these means or similar file storage system.

The system may include a means for the player app to determine thelocation of the player though various means such as iBeacon or otherBluetooth low energy beacon, gps, glonass, wifi, audio triangulation orother means and transmits same to the shopping system upon the playerapp entering checkout mode. If the shopping system determines the playeris within the boundaries of an authority authorized retailer location itnotifies the player to proceed to a point of sale location, such as apoint of sale clerk or a point of sale kiosk. The player app displays aunique code and/or broadcasts a unique code through various means ofshort range methods such as NFC, BLE, wifi, sound, or though pictorialmeans such as a qr or barcode.

The clerk or kiosk location includes a display or internal list thatshows or is aware of the player apps within range based on the uniquecode in its various formats from the player App. The point of salesystem has means to scan or cause to know the various unique codeoutputs of the player app so as to identify the player device beingpresented for payment of wagers. The player displays the visual codes tothe clerk or the clerk is notified by the point of sale system of theplayer's device being in proximity to the point of sale system. Thesystem may allow for authority manipulation of the authorized proximitydistances that would allow players to initiate checkout and/or completea sale.

When payment has been made by the player to the clerk or kiosk, thepoint of sale system records the payment in the shopping management andwager management system(s). As the shopping management system confirmsreceipt of the payment transaction, the shopping management system sendsa payment confirmation to the player app and the point of sale system toindicate that a ticket is being generated. The shopping management andwager management systems communicate so as to persist wager informationin the authority storage means. During the ticket generation process,the player app and point of sale system indicates to the player app andthe point of sale system that a ticket generation process is occurringwith an indeterminate processing period.

The system also provides an authority and/or game and/or draw asymmetriccryptographic public private key pair. The public key is available tothe shopping management systems and/or the wager management systemand/or other authority systems used to generate the electronic ticket.The private key is guarded and only used by the authority to decrypt aclaimed ticket.

The system provides two attributes in the ticket payload, namely aSymetricKeyCypherText and a PayloadCypherText. The SymetricKeyCypherTextattribute contains the encrypted symmetric key used to symmetricallyencrypt the payload cypher text or portions of the payload cypher text.The symmetric key cipher text is encrypted using the authority and/orgame and/or draw asymmetric public key. The PayloadCypherText containsthe encrypted content string encrypted using a symmetric algorithm, suchas AES, using the decrypted plain text of the SymetricKeyCypherText asthe symmetric key.

In generating an electronic ticket, a content string containing thewager attributes, the unique ticket identifier and optionally claimantauthentication information (such as a pin or password) is encrypted intocypher text using a symmetric encryption algorithm. The encryption keythen being encrypted using an asymmetric public key unique to the gameand/or draw.

A file template, for example an image file, can be used as the basis ofeach electronic ticket. This file template may be an exact graphicrepresentation of the design of a conventionally known printed, paperticket or may be any interesting file content desired as the basis ofthe ticket file. By varying the byte configuration of the file andhashing the template prior to creation of the payload and embedding thefile template cryptographic hash in the payload it can be furtherproven, upon decryption of the payload, that a given file was derivedfrom a valid authority file template much like authority authorizedpaper contains various hints to indicate the validity and origin of theclaimed paper ticket.

The ticket template may be dynamically generated to display advertisingcontent which is contextually relevant to the specific player and theattributes of that player in the context of a multiple of conditions.The display advertising content may include players location, time ofday or date, proximity to retail product or store location, or othersimilar attributes. For example, a player located at a gas station maycause the ticket template to include a coupon and related barcode orother identifying information to allow a discount on gas. As way ofanother example, the central system may sense through the use oflocation beacon technology within the player app that the playerlingered near a certain retail display, therefore this causes the tickettemplate to include a coupon and related barcode or other identifyinginformation for a discount on the product or products associated withthat display.

In generating an electronic ticket, the wager information can bevisually or audibly represented when the ticket is produced as in avisual file format such as an image or video files or audiblyrepresented when the ticket is in an audio file format such as mp3 orother audio file formats. By embedding wager information both in theencrypted payload and directly in the visual image or video file or anauditory file, the player can be aware of the player selected wagerinformation but not have access to any secure claim or authenticationinformation contained within the ticket payload.

Steganography may be used with a visual file format to relay informationwithout being visually noticeable. A simple steganography approach,among many possible, is to hide data within an image file, is called theleast significant bit (LSB) insertion. In this approach, the systemtakes the binary representation of the data to be encoded and overwritesthe LSB of each byte within a template image (file). If the systemutilizes, for example, a 24-bit color, the change to the template imageis minimal and indiscernible to the human eye for the first four bits ofthe byte indicate the color scheme or range which is perceptible to thehuman eye. The bits appearing after the first four bits providevariations which are not perceptible to the human eye, with eachsuccessive bit being less important. Therefore, these trailing bits maybe manipulated to indicate or hide information without changing thevisual appearance of the pixel associated with the byte. For example,suppose the system has three sequential pixels (nine bytes) (first groupof bytes) with the following RGB (red, green, blue) encoding:

10010101 00001101 11001001 10010110 00001111 11001010 10011111 0001000011001011

To encode the following 9 bits of information: 101101101 (second groupof bytes), the system overlays these nine bits onto the LSB of the ninebytes shown above. As a result, the nine bytes above are converted tothe following nine bytes (final group of bytes) (where bits in bracketsare shown herein to indicate an overall change).

10010101 0000110[0] 11001001 1001011[1] 0000111[0] 1100101[1] 1001111100010000 11001011

Thus, the system has encoded nine bits by changing only four of thebits, or approximately half of the LSB bits.

The steganography may commence with the very first byte of a file (imagefile or audio file) or anywhere within the file. As such, the datasetincluding wager information and other information may be hidden so asnot to be humanly perceivable (humanly undetectable) with or within adataset including visual or audio data which is perceivable to a human(humanly detectable). It should be understood that depending on thenumber of bytes utilized in the steganographic technique the image orvideo quality may degrade, however, the term humanly undetectable orhumanly undetectable dataset as used herein is intended to mean that ahuman cannot readily detect the data under normal conditions or withoutthe aid of electronic means.

In generating an electronic ticket the shopping management system and/orwager management system persists several items to assure that a ticketwas generated by an authorized authority retailer, which may include thenon-secure ticket unique identifier and the cryptographic hash of thegenerated ticket file post template modification and post encoding ofthe encrypted payload. Additional information may be persisted to assurenon repudiation of the ticket by both the player and the authority uponclaiming by a player which may include a cryptographically hashedglobally unique non repudiation string value that is persisted on thecentral system in cypher text format and within the encrypted ticketpayload as a plain text string. The ability for a decrypted ticketpayloads cryptographically hashed plain text globally unique nonrepudiation string value to match the central systems cryptographicallyhashed globally unique non repudiation string value further proves theauthenticity of the ticket being presented for claim.

Content string cypher text is encoded into an instance of the imagetemplate file using steganography techniques to yield an electronicticket file. The final encoded file is cryptographically hashed intocypher text. The cypher text is then asymmetrically signed by a shoppingmanagement system private key and the cryptographically hashed signatureis stored with the unique ticket identifier by the authority to aid inclaim validation. The storage of the signatures cryptographic hashprovides a further layer of security by assuring that even a ticket thatwas generated fraudulently using the correct public keys is still deemedinvalid if the signatures cryptographic hash associated with the uniqueticket identifier does not exist in the issuing authority auditsystem(s) prior to close of draw. Much like previously discussed paperticket counterfeiting options, multiple countermeasures exist in thepresent invention to assure multiple system(s) would need to be attackedto successfully counterfeit an electronic ticket. The final encoded fileis returned to the shopping management system for distribution to theplayer.

An authority authorized retailer location might be connected to theshopping management system, while the player app is not. The player appmay alternatively checkout and download symmetrically encrypted ticketfiles matching the requested shopping cart to the players' app orpossession prior to purchase or being in proximity to the retailerlocation so as to avoid connectivity issues during the proximity basedpayment session. Rather than a synchronous ticket generation anddownload transaction, the ticket may be generated, encrypted anddownloaded at any time prior to when payment is requested. The paymentcould then be completed while in proximity to the point of sale locationeven if the player app is disconnected. The encrypted file returned tothe player app or player possession would then be able to be decryptedby the player app or player using a key provided during the paymentprocess with a connected point of sale. This key could be transmittedelectronically, visually or audibly to the player app upon paymentvalidation. This method provides for player app disconnected payment andrequires only retailer point of sale connectivity to persist the saleand retrieve the decryption key for the tickets previously downloaded inan encrypted format by the player app. Decryption keys may betransmitted to the disconnected player app by the connected point ofsale via electronic, auditory or visual means at the time of purchase.

The electronic ticket content string cypher text can be decoded from theelectronic ticket file using the inverse of the steganography techniquesused to encode ticket cypher text.

The electronic ticket content string cypher text can be decrypted usingthe private key matching the public key used to encrypt the contentstring. The electronic ticket can be authenticated using the claimantauthentication information such as a pin or password cryptographic hashcomparison.

In the event that there is a single purchaser/claimant, the claimant mayprovide a pin or password which is cryptographically hashed and comparedto the cryptographic hash value stored in the content string at the timeof electronic ticket generation.

In the event that there are multiple claimants, such as when tickets arepurchased by a group of players, the electronic ticket may beauthenticated using shared claimant group authentication informationsuch as a group pin or password which is cryptographically hashed andcompared to the cryptographic hash value stored in the content string atthe time of electronic ticket generation. The claimant group members mayprovide an individual pin or password which is cryptographically hashedand compared to the cryptographic hash value stored in the contentstring at the time of electronic ticket generation.

The system allows for authority authorized retailers to generateelectronic tickets in a non-reputable manner. As such, the systemprovides for the issuing authority a mechanism by which authorityauthorized retailers can generate an asymmetric cryptographic public andprivate key pair and provide the asymmetric public key to the issuingauthority to prove electronic tickets are generated by the authorizedretail through an asymmetric cryptographic digital signature(cryptographic signature). To do so, the electronic ticket cryptographichash is signed using the asymmetric private key of the authorityauthorized retail and stored by the issuing authority with thecryptographic hash text and unique ticket identifier. The electronicticket can then be verified cryptographically during the claim processas being issued by an authority authorized retail. This digitalsignature may also act as proof of authority authorized retailtransactions to facilitate billing and other administrative taskspertaining to the sale of the electronic ticket. This also optionallyprovides for an embodiment in which authority authorized retails cangenerate valid electronic tickets while offline from the authority.

The electronic ticket is verified to indicate it was issued by theauthority by presenting the electronic ticket file. The electronicticket file presented for validation can be cryptographically hashed andthe cryptographic hash cypher text looked up by the issuing authority inthe issuing authorities audit transactions. Existence of thecryptographic hash text in the issuing authorities audit transactionsconfirms the issuance of the electronic ticket by that authority.

The system may then check to validate that the electronic ticket wasissued by an authority authorized retailer. The electronic ticketsunique identifier would be looked up in the issuing authorities audittransactions. Using a digital signature verifying algorithm, theelectronic tickets cryptographic hash signature stored in the issuingauthorities' audit transactions would be verified as authentic to theauthority authorized retailer. If the signature was verified it wouldindicate that the authority authorized retailer issued the electronicticket.

The electronic ticket is also validated to indicate the winning statusof the electronic ticket based on the rules of the game(s) of theelectronic ticket presented for validation as follows. First, thecontent string cypher text is decoded from the electronic ticket fileusing the inverse of the steganography techniques used to encode ticketcypher text. Second, the symmetric key cypher text is decrypted usingthe game and/or draw specific private key. Third, the encrypted contentstring is decrypted using the symmetric key plain text. Fourth andfinally, the unique ticket identifier is validated and the wagerattributes of the claimants file are compared to the award validationattributes. If they satisfy the rules for award of the game beingpresented for validation, the claimant is awarded the prize(s)(authorized payment) associated with the wager attributes for theelectronic ticket.

In summary, the system provides a player with the ability to selectwager information and purchase a ticket by electronic means. While theprocess has been described in detail above, the following is a concisesummary of the process which is also illustrated in FIG. 5. The playerfirst downloads and opens a ticket shopping app 60. The shopping appregisters the player with a unique player app identifier within theshopping server of the central system 61. The player may then selectdesired game, draw, and panel component options such as numbers 62 andthe player initiates a checkout 63. The player must checkout close to anauthority authorized retailer location 64 wherein the app electronicallyrelays the game information to the shopping server (central system) 65which validates the information 66. The shopping server (central system)then returns a unique shopping session identifier to both the player appand the point of sale app which processed the players purchasing of theticket 67. The player app then displays the price and unique shoppingsession identifier 68 which is also displayed at the point of sale app69 so that the clerk may collect the funds to purchase the ticket. Withthe player displaying the smart phone screen to the point of purchaseclerk 70 the clerk receives the payment which is recorded by theshopping system and player app 71. The central system then removes thedisplay from the point of sale app 72 and notification of the paymentrecord is sent to the player app and displayed 73. The point of sale appmay then display an intermediate waiting indicator while the ticket isgenerated 74 which is also displayed on the players' smart phone 75. Thecentral system generates the ticket 76 which when confirmed 77 anotification is sent to the point of sale app and player app 78. Theplayer app then downloads the ticket from the shopping system (centralsystem) 79 and the player app notifies the shopping system of thesuccessful download through a comparison of the shopping systemstransmitted file cryptographic hash value and the received filescryptographic hash value 80. The shopping system then may delete thegenerated ticket 81.

The present invention advances the art of ticketing for lottery andother types of wagering by providing an electronic ticket that possessesthe critical attributes of a ticket, which include the following: ameans of player selecting panels of component options and paying forthem; a means of generating a ticket file based on the player selectedpanels of component options; a ticket file which is a bearer instrumentrequiring no registration of player personally identifying data tofacilitate claim of a prize; a ticket file presenting visual or auditoryinformation to a player in a common file format such that they can viewor hear the game, draw and wager information using common file viewingapplications; a ticket file containing an encrypted payload of game,draw, wager and/or player credential information encoded into the ticketfile using steganography, cryptographic hashed password credentials, andcryptographically hashed player image cypher text from player storedimages; a ticket file, in the form of an image, containing a secondimage, selected by the player and superimposed on the ticket image toprovide one type of player identification; a ticket file, in the form ofan image, containing a voice print, created by the player andsuperimposed on the ticket image to provide one type of playeridentification; storing an asymmetrically signed, one way encryptioncypher text value, such as a cryptographic hash, of the ticket file inthe wagering system to validate that the wagering system generated theticket file; and a means of transmitting the ticket file to the player.

It thus is seen that an electronic ticket is provided that overcomes theproblem of ticket verification of the past. Although the new electronicticket has been shown in its preferred form, many modifications,additions and deletions, in addition to those expressly recited herein,may be made thereto without departure from the spirit and scope of theinvention as set forth in the following claims.

1. A method of creating and validating an electronic ticket comprisingthe steps of: A. providing claimant software to enable the selection ofwager information; B. transmitting selected claim validation attributesto a shopping management system; C. transmitting a payment request fromthe shopping management system to a shopping point of sale location; D.transmitting a payment verification from the shopping point of salelocation to the shopping management system; E. transmitting the wagerinformation from the shopping management system to a wager managementsystem which stores the wager information; F. creating and transmittinga unique identifier from the wager management system to the shoppingmanagement system; G. creating a first file with audio or visual contentby the shopping management system; H. encrypting the wager informationinto a second file by the shopping management system; I. encoding thesecond file into the first file to create a final file by the shoppingmanagement system; J. transmitting in a lossless manner the final filefrom the shopping management system to a claimant file storage system;K. presenting the final file from the claimant file storage system tothe shopping management system for claim validation; L. decoding thefinal file into a decoded file by the shopping management system; M.decrypting the decoded file by the shopping management system into aclaimant file containing the wager information; N. comparing theclaimant file unique identifier and wager attributes to the uniqueidentifier and award validation attributes stored in the wagermanagement system by the shopping management system, and O. optionally,comparing the claimant file encrypted player credentials to theencrypted player credentials presented by claimant, and P. authorizingpayment of the claim by the wager management system if the comparisonresults in a match.
 2. A method of creating an anonymous electronicbearer instrument comprising the steps of: A. transmitting selectedclaim validation information to an authority; B. storing the selectedclaim validation information with the authority, and C. transmittingfrom the authority to the claimant an electronic file containing ahumanly detectable first dataset that contains a humanly undetectablesecond dataset, the humanly undetectable second dataset containing theclaim validation information encrypted using a cryptographic key knownonly to an authority, the humanly undetectable second dataset includingthe claim validation information also being encoded into the humanlydetectable first dataset the resulting electronic file including theclaim validation information and being transferred from the authority tothe claimant, the humanly undetectable second dataset being undetectableto the claimant.
 3. The method of creating an anonymous electronicbearer instrument of claim 2 wherein step (C) the electronic file is animage file.
 4. The method of creating an anonymous electronic bearerinstrument of claim 2 wherein step (C) the electronic file is an audiofile.
 5. The method of creating an anonymous electronic bearerinstrument of claim 2 wherein step (C) the electronic file is a videofile.
 6. The method of creating an anonymous electronic bearerinstrument of claim 2 wherein step (C) the electronic file does notcontain personal identification information.
 7. The method of creatingan anonymous electronic bearer instrument of claim 2 wherein step (C)the electronic file contains personal identification information.
 8. Themethod of creating an anonymous electronic bearer instrument of claim 2wherein step (C) a cryptographic signature of a cryptographic hash ofthe electronic file is stored by a shopping or wagering managementsystem and the cryptographic signature of the cryptographic hash acts asan indicator of authenticity.
 9. The method of creating an anonymouselectronic bearer instrument of claim 2 wherein step (C) the claimvalidation attributes includes the credentials of more than oneclaimant.
 10. The method of creating an anonymous electronic bearerinstrument of claim 9 wherein step (C) the electronic file may bepossessed by each of the more than one claimant.
 11. The method ofcreating an anonymous electronic bearer instrument of claim 2 whereinstep (C) the cryptographic key is a symmetric key.
 12. The method ofcreating an anonymous electronic bearer instrument of claim 11 whereinstep (C) the symmetric key is encrypted with an asymmetric public keywith a corresponding asymmetric private key known by the authority. 13.The method of creating an anonymous electronic bearer instrument ofclaim 12 wherein step (C) the encrypted symmetric key is included in thehumanly undetectable second dataset.
 14. A method of creating ananonymous electronic bearer instrument comprising the steps of: (A)creating an electronic file which includes a final group of bytes bycombining a first group of bytes with a second group of bytes, thesecond group of bytes being encrypted with a cryptographic key knownonly to a bearer instrument issuing authority, the second group of bytescontaining wager information being selected by or for a claimant, thesecond group of bytes being encoded into the first group of bytes bychanging one or more bits of one or more bytes of the first group ofbytes resulting in the formation of the final group of bytes withoutsignificantly altering by comparison the auditory or visual presentationof the anonymous electronic bearer instrument represented by and betweenthe first group of bytes and the final group of bytes, the resultingfinal electronic file containing the wager information being transferredfrom the issuing authority to the claimant, the second group of bytesbeing undetectable to the claimant of the anonymous electronic bearerinstrument, and (B) transmitting the electronic file from the bearerinstrument issuing authority to the claimant.
 15. The method of creatingan anonymous electronic bearer instrument of claim 14 wherein theelectronic file is an image file.
 16. The method of creating ananonymous electronic bearer instrument of claim 14 wherein theelectronic file is an audio file.
 17. The method of creating ananonymous electronic bearer instrument of claim 14 wherein theelectronic file is a video file.
 18. The method of creating an anonymouselectronic bearer instrument of claim 14 wherein the electronic filedoes not contain personal identification information.
 19. The method ofcreating an anonymous electronic bearer instrument of claim 14 whereinthe electronic file contains personal identification information. 20.The method of creating an anonymous electronic bearer instrument ofclaim 14 wherein a cryptographic signature of a cryptographic hash ofthe electronic file is stored by a shopping or wager management system.21. The method of creating an anonymous electronic bearer instrument ofclaim 14 wherein the wager information includes the credentials of morethan one claimant.
 22. The method of creating an anonymous electronicbearer instrument of claim 21 wherein the electronic file may bepossessed by each of the more than one claimant.
 23. The method ofcreating an anonymous electronic bearer instrument of claim 14 whereinthe cryptographic key is a symmetric key.
 24. The method of creating ananonymous electronic bearer instrument of claim 23 wherein the symmetrickey is encrypted with an asymmetric public key with a correspondingasymmetric private key known by the shopping or wager management system.25. The method of creating an anonymous electronic bearer instrument ofclaim 24 wherein the encrypted symmetric key is included in the humanlyundetectable second dataset.